Over at Planned Parenthood, though, donations poured in during the flap, including $250,000 alone from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. All told, more than $3 million came in over four days, and now Planned Parenthood says it's using the windfall to expand its services and education for breast health.

The money will help pay for specialized diagnostic services, such as biopsies, if a problem is found during screening. And Planned Parenthood will beef up education about clinical breast exams to encourage women — especially those under 40 — to get screened. The group has also come up with a tool to help health professionals assess the breast cancer risks for women.

"Early detection is critical in identifying breast cancer at its most treatable stages and saving women's lives," Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. "This expanded program will help us provide more patients with these vital screenings, and also ensure that more patients in need can get specialized follow up care, like ultrasounds or biopsies."

While screening can find breast cancers early, the testing also carries risks and costs. False alarms can lead to unnecessary biopsies, for instance.

Planned Parenthood's screening expansion runs counter to some recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an influential if sometimes controversial group that provides advice on health care. The task force recommends that screening mammograms start at 50 and continue until 74. Mammograms should be done every other year instead of annually, too.

The task force did say the decision for younger women to start screening mammograms should be a personal one that takes the risks and benefits into account. Still, early mammograms are clearly the exception rather than the rule in the task force's view.

As for clinical breast exams, the USPSTF says the evidence is lacking to make a recommendation for or against them in women 40 and over. The exams can detect cancers but also can result in false alarms the lead to worry and "unwarranted imaging biopsies," the task force wrote.

Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, told Shots the group is following the mammogram guidelines from American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which recommends annual mammograms. Nucatola says Planned Parenthood believes the benefits to catching breast cancer early outweigh the risks.